


Heavyweight

by maxthebd



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen, Nightmares, Sleepwalking, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-28
Updated: 2013-08-28
Packaged: 2017-12-24 21:50:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/945057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maxthebd/pseuds/maxthebd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First came the celebration. Second was the guilt. Third was the crash. And then the nightmares started...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heavyweight

First came the celebration, which Dr. Newton Geiszler did his best to partake in the massive amounts of hugs being thrown around LOCCENT before he quietly detached himself from the crowd. Retreating to the comfort of his own quarters was the best move he could make.

Second came the guilt.

The realization that he was solely responsible for the loss of three Jaeger teams and the destruction of Hong Kong because he drifted with a damned Kaiju brain. But dammit, he saved the fucking world, didn’t that count for something?

Third came the crash. He was familiar with that creeping sense of loss as well, he was technically job-less from here on out and that never, ever sat well with him.

He woke up one afternoon and realized that Hermann’s side of the lab was entirely clean and empty of all chalkboards and technology. Newt would even go as far as to say that after 10 years of working side by side with the man, and fuck, drifting with him, knowing that Dr. Gottlieb was going back to a beautiful little girl and a bombshell of a wife, felt like a slap on Newt’s already bruised face.

Because where as they both saved the damned world, Hermann somehow got the girl. Then again, he started with the girl, which made Newt’s headache only increase in intensity.

Then the nightmares started.

At first, they were nothing but disturbing flashes of extermination lines and labs, which he chalked up to drift memories and adrenaline.

They were nothing.

Next came the screaming himself awake mid-nightmare as the action within became more gruesome, more loud. Almost as if he was being punished.

He probably was.

Hell, he knew he was.

Newt wasn’t really sure if the definitive was worse than the suggestion.

~*~*~

Raleigh Beckett tugged at a thinning sweater sleeve and shuddered at the night-time cool of the slowly-disassembled Shatterdome.

Usually, he found himself alone in this corridor, which is why he found himself halting mid-step when footsteps, slow, unsure from the sound of them, interrupted his twilight reverie.

So he waited for the brief seconds it took for Dr. Geiszler to walk around the corner and keep walking toward him.

The glazed eyes and slack expression were the first red flags that had Raleigh corralling the doctor with a gentle arm around the shoulders and letting the doctor’s trajectory change to one Raleigh deemed safe. So help everyone if their beloved scientist somehow found his way onto a still-very active Jaeger floor.

A flash of blue caught his attention as he slowly guided the sleepwalking scientist toward his destination.

"Raleigh," Mako Mori nodded to him, holding a blanket under one arm.

"Mako," Raleigh returned the nod before looking down at the silent man half-leaning against his side. "I don’t recall sleepwalking after drifts."

Mako walked up to both of them, prodding Raleigh’s arm out of the way to drape the blanket over Newton’s shoulders. “He also drifted with a Kaiju, twice.” She ran a hand over the short man’s sweat-matted hair. “I was just looking for him. Thank you.”

~*~*~

Not even the sound of a steel door opening roused either of the bed’s occupants.

Raleigh stepped into Mako’s quarters and shut the door behind him. Sinking into a nearby chair, he propped his feet up on the lowest bunk’s end and grinned at the two, oh hell, heroes, sleeping the slumber of the exhausted.

Mako had curled herself half on top of Newt, who’s arm curled around the woman’s middle as the rest of him provided a warm, breathing pillow for her.

The sight gave Raleigh enough time to figure out something that he had been pondering for months.

He watched Newt’s breathing and shifted his chair so he could catch the bright flashes of color around the scientist’s middle as his t-shirt rode up.

Sure enough, the crazy little bastard didn’t just have a full shirt of ink.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, that scene was in my head ever since I watched the movie. Be sure to say "hi" over on [Tumblr](http://maxthebd.tumblr.com)!


End file.
